Martin O'Neill: It would have been wrong to cap Rice or Grealish competitively for Ireland

'You can’t deceive people into playing these games. You cannot force them into that'

England's Jack Grealish

Martin O'Neill believes it would have been morally wrong to "convince" either Declan Rice or Jack Grealish to play for the Republic of Ireland competitively - because their hearts were both set on representing England.

O'Neill told Jim White on Talksport: "You can't coerce players into becoming international players. Declan played in three friendly games at senior level, he was terrific in the games. It’s as simple as this: Declan Rice wanted to play for England. He’s born in England, it really is as simple as that, you cannot just bring them into an international game, a competitive game, where the minute they play a competitive match for the country that’s them announcing they’re going to be playing for them.